This invention pertains to antimicrobials effective in protecting against bacterial and viral infections.
Although many antimicrobials have been suggested for the treatment of bacterial and viral infections, these diseases continue to be a problem. One reason for this is that bacteria such as staphylococcus, streptococcus, pseudomonas, etc., are a unique group of organisms which still present unanswered questions in biology, both fundamental and experimental. They are ubiquitous in distribution and have attained extreme degrees of diversification in biological and biochemical characteristics.
On a more specifice level, it is recognized that the significance of staphylococcal infections is not so much in severity, except in a few instances, as in the subtleties of the infections due to the unpredictable vagaries of these organisms. Treatment of staphylococcal diseases is complicated by the ability of the organisms to develop resistance to the drug being used in the treatment. Propionibacterium acnes on the other hand plays a role in the etiology of acne vulgaris by hydrolyzing sebaceous triglycerides, and by producing other factors that induce microcomedonal inflammation.
The magnitude of the problem of treating bacterial and viral infections is amplified by the extreme difficulty of total eradication and the frequent reappearance of the same strain even after apparently successful elimination. The inability to eliminate the carrier state by any of the currently known methods and the prevalence of the new antibiotic resistance hospital strains have added a new dimension to the frustrating situation.
The development of such multiple antibiotic resistant strains of bacterial organisms suggests the desirability of investigating additional means of combating bacterial infections. As a consequence, the development of drugs which are effective against microbials has attracted considerable attention. Staphylococcal and similar infections including chronic persistent and post surgical infections, have posed serious problems in the clinical field. As a consequence, there is seemingly a never ending demand for antimicrobial factors, particularly those with antiviral activities.